Thanks for taking the time to open and read my points of view, I’m extremely passionate about all the topics I blog about and even if you take one thing from this let me know.
Managing your extended workforce is not just about
selecting the right services, it’s about ensuring your business fully
understands what is required to successfully do this. Throughout my years in the
industry it has been very common for businesses to rely on service providers to
help shape what the actual need is, rather than being clear on key scope
elements before engaging service providers. By doing this I have seen
businesses detail the value expected from what service providers can support.
Now this is not a bad thing as naturally we rely on those experts to help figure out the best solution to meet your needs and value expected, but these should not be created based on the solutions offered. The needs of your business should always drive what solution fits best. I get it, this might seem quite a basic element to mention, but it is overlooked so many times. And lets be honest, there are so many fantastic solutions out there that it can make the old brain a little fuzzy!
Now I’m not here to tell you how to run your process to gain an agreed scope of what you expect from your Extended Workforce Management, as there are many well rounded processes that are followed across the business world. However a lot of the content I read focuses more on how to write out a scope of work from a general business perspective, rather than how to ensure the detail you need is captured correctly. From my experiences supporting businesses I have always found the below 5 tips are a simple, clear and consistent approach to ensuring you gain scope correctly when it comes to your Extended Workforce.
Don’t just assume you know, get the data you need that can help you understand where to go. Data can range from internal service feedback, reviewing spend levels by type of worker and function, worker rate details or even how many invoicing errors you get. The list is vast on what data can help you see challenges, and if you don’t have data on key elements then that could demonstrate a need to get some! For example, if you are unable to pull key metrics on time to hire then clearly getting a solution to help you do this will give you greater visibility on the performance of your internal process and supply chain.
After pinpointing those areas for development, or gaps in critical data, its key to assess what value you think you can gain from enhancing them. You might feel you have challenges to tackle, but if you can’t justify the value then what’s the point? I have been involved in deployments where the client agreed in their scope to implement a very complex hiring approval process to deter rouge spend. The challenge was that this in fact caused large issues with actually hiring workers in the time they needed. So understanding the value is not just about implementing something new, it’s also about seeing if the value is reduced in other areas too.
If you can’t measure the expected value, then you will sure need to reflect on what the actual value is. And remember it is not just important to have during initial scope, but when checking on whether you are still getting the value you expected in years to come. Being able to present to stakeholders along the journey can be very satisfying to do, whether positive or negative. One of my most enjoyable measurements to capture is taking a benchmark on internal buyer service feedback, seeing clients set quite high expectations on service levels and then the outcome post implementation. There is nothing better than your colleagues seeing improvement because of the work you have done.
We all have great ideas and can justify them, but if you don’t have the backing and money, if needed, then it’s highly likely these ideas will just become pipe dreams and never take off. It’s important that you bring in the right internal resource from key departments to help understand the value, gain support and funding. A pitfall I have seen in the past has been when clients did not bring in the right decision makers, you think you have everything tied in a nice bow and then only when starting to deploy do you find out one key decision maker was missed. And yes you can imagine what this caused, wasted time having to re-educate, and in some instances rescope. And don’t overlook those influencers, we all need support to make critical changes so pull those resources in to help get that value implemented.
If the buy-in is there and funds are available, if needed, you should have already covered this off, but making enhancements to your Extended Workforce does require external support from service providers on most occasions. Focussing just internally has been a common challenge from my experiences, depending on your scope of work needs this could potentially incur addition cost and time that needs to be considered. Ultimately sending a clear scope to providers will ensure you get commitments from them early on, helping you stay in control of what you expect. The last thing you want is to have to take a step back and get budget re-approved.
So that’s it from me, and remember these are just a few snippets from my brain for what you will need, feel free to get in touch if you want to dig deeper and understand how EW Scope can help.
Look out for my next blog that I hope you will take something from!
Copyright 2024 EW Scope Ltd. All rights reserved.
A private limited company incorporated in Scotland under SC764134
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking accept, you agree to the use of all cookies.